Reliable multicast and broadcast of wireless communications are gaining importance with the development in technology. In organizations this may be exemplified by the fact multicast and broadcast are becoming a required capability for delivery of live conference, web training, and wireless network management. In home networking, broadcast video streaming can be used for home entertainment and gaming. In hospital environments, broadcast can be used for commercial advertisement and television broadcasting.
Existing communication protocols such as IEEE-Std 802.11, 1999 Edition (ISO/IEC 8802-11: 1999) standard do not support reliable multicast/broadcast due to their inability to exchange acknowledgment messages (ACK) with multiple recipients. Obtaining a level of reliability in a multicast communication may be achieved by designating for a given wireless network, a leader station to respond to the multicast traffic with an ACK, thereby notifying the multicast source that the packet was successfully delivered to at least the leader. However, the higher reliability may cause a longer delay or lower overall network throughput as the reliability is achieved by the retransmission of packets in the network.
It will be appreciated that, for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.